Cisco Systems reported its revenue fell 9 percent to $11.93 billion (£9.10 billion) in the first-quarter ended October 24.
Cisco’s revenue dropped despite people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic drove demand for its teleconferencing tools, networking equipment and cybersecurity products.
Demand for Cisco’s videoconferencing platform Webex, virtual private network AnyConnect and cybersecurity products surged as offices remained shut with more people working remotely after the coronavirus-driven lockdowns started earlier this year.
Cisco revenue has now fallen four quarters in a row. The coronavirus pandemic and recession continued to challenge Cisco as much of its revenue still comes from sales of equipment for corporate and government data centers and offices, while spending on cloud services has increased as people work from home.
Cisco saw a 5 percent increase in public sector orders year over year in the quarter, while orders were down in enterprise, commercial and service provider segments. Stimulus spending boosted government orders in the U.S. and abroad, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told analysts on a conference call.
Cisco’s revenue from Infrastructure Platforms segment, which includes data center networking switches, dropped 16 percent to $6.34 billion. It’s the largest part of Cisco’s business by revenue, and it’s the one that’s most impacted by the virus.
Revenue from Applications business, which contains Webex video-calling service and the AppDynamics monitoring software, fell 8 percent to $1.38 billion.
